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DOMESTIC air travel last year grew by more than a
fifth owing to local airlines’ cheap promo fares, the Civil
Aeronautics Board (CAB) on Wednesday said.
Data from CAB showed the
number of domestic passengers rose 22.7 percent to 10.38 million
from 8.46 million passengers in 2006.
The country’s five major
carriers’ seat capacity jumped 14.6 percent to 13.33 million last
year from 11.61 million in 2006. Domestic load factor, which
measures the number of seats occupied during a flight, averaged 78
percent from 73 percent in 2006.
The industry’s increasing load
factor reflects a steady growth in passenger demand Budget airline
Cebu Pacific remained the leading domestic carrier last year as it
carried a total of 4.45 million passengers, compared with rival
Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) 4.03 million.
The Gokongwei-owned budget
carrier registered an 83 percent load factor last year from 76
percent in 2006. This was higher than PAL’s 79 percent last year
and 75 percent in 2006.
Air Philippines, the budget
unit of PAL, recorded 1.16 million domestic passengers last year
compared with 969,165 in 2006.
Air Philippines is 99
percent owned by the Lucio Tan Group, which also owns 95 percent of
PAL.
During the same period,
Asian Spirit reported 484,482 passengers and Southeast Asian Airline
(Seair) transported 245,020 passengers.
Cargo also rose to 142,695,071
kilograms last year as against 132,636,830 a year earlier.
PAL carried 62.67 million
kilograms during the period followed by Cebu Pacific, 54.16 million;
Air Philippines, 12 million; and Pacific East Asia Cargo, 9.8
million.
--Darwin G. Amojelar
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